first post, couple of newb questions, looking for direction

Hey guys and gals, i'm new to programming and would like to start learning a few things so I think I have come to the right place!

I have a project I am working on and need a few direction pointers,

first off i have installed IDA pro free on my computer and have been able to disassemble my exe file and am slowly going through the code using the debugger and think I have found the areas I wish to modify the code a bit to get rid of a memory check,

my first question is this, I thought I would be able to change the coding in the IDA software but it seems not. Where do i go from here? do I output a .asm file and edit it there?

The second question falls directly on the first, If i have an .asm file and modify it what do I use to compile it back to an exe file?

I thought at first I could do all of this in IDA but maybe not in the free software? Sorry for the newb questions, but I really want to learn this stuff and have found alot of options searching google but some seem redundant, and I wish to have as little steps possible and dont want to install programs I dont need.

Comments

However, I wouldn't recommend to start learning assembly this way, unless all you really want to do is modify some closed-source program quickly. It's better to start by making you own simple programs (Hello world!) and then gradually moving on to the harder stuff. That way you'll get a solid understanding of the basics and you'll feel much more comfortable with the debugger later on. It's up to you though.

If you have an .asm file and want to assemble it, you'll have to find the appropriate assembler for the code. That might be Fasm, Masm, Nasm, GAS, Tasm or something else. I don't know which IDA uses. Note that in some cases it's not possible to assemble .asm files from disassembled executables, because not all of the information (resources, tricky code paths) can be recovered from the executable into source form.